Kenyan to head renewables energy agency

October 25, 2010 12:00 am

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By , ABU DHABI, Oct 25 – Adnan Amin of Kenya will replace Helene Pelosse of France as the interim director general of the International Renewable Energy Agency, a source close to the organisation said on Monday.

The source spoke on the sidelines of the fourth IRENA preparatory commission meeting in Abu Dhabi, which began on Sunday and is being attended by about 400 delegates from more than 100 countries, according to the organisation.

Amin is currently a senior official in the UN Secretariat in New York, according to the UN website.

IRENA announced last Tuesday that Pelosse was leaving the agency less than 18 months after she was elected interim director general, beating off challengers from Denmark, Greece and Spain.

She had previously served as deputy head of staff in the private office of French Ecology Minister Jean-Louis Borloo.

IRENA, which was founded in Bonn in January 2009, is "dedicated to facilitating the rapid development and deployment of renewable energy worldwide," its website says.

A total of 148 states and the European Union have signed its statute.

The agency is based in the United Arab Emirates capital Abu Dhabi, despite criticism of the Gulf state\’s high carbon footprint.

The UAE government plans to relocate the agency\’s headquarters to Masdar, a 22-billion-dollar city outside Abu Dhabi that will have zero carbon emissions and is scheduled for completion in 2015.